The UFC is possibly one of the most exciting companies that a person could own. It is rapidly expanding and is in a weird niche of sports that nothing can match it. It brings the theatricality of professional wrestling but is actually real. Dana White has an answer on why the UFC is so popular.
With a popular product comes a lot of wealth, and that is exactly what UFC owner Ari Emanuel has. Emanuel is the CEO of Endeavour, who bought the UFC from previous owners Dana White and Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta in 2016 for $4 billion. Considering it sold for that much in 2016, we can only imagine how much the value has risen since.
The UFC fighters just received their first email from new owners Ari Emanuel & Patrick Whitesell per @BabyfaceBenoit pic.twitter.com/rftZ24a6e9
— Chamatkar Sandhu (@SandhuMMA) August 20, 2016
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Well, we can take a guess by looking at the way Emanuel is spending his money. He is known to spend a lot of money on property, having already bought multiple multi-million dollar homes. But Emanuel has added a crown jewel by purchasing a grand Beverly Hills estate for a reported $27.5 million. The house was originally listed for $39 million but fell to 27.5 for Emanuel to buy.
Other property highlights for the UFC owner are a $16 million house in Los Angeles, which he tried to expand by purchasing the $11 million plot next to it. Both houses have since been sold.
UFC and its direction under Emanuel
Dana White may be the face we see regularly, but the company isn’t his anymore. It hasn’t been his company for 4 years now. But considering how the sport has progressed in that time, we can safely say that Ari is doing a great job.
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He isn’t known to be hands on, letting Dana operate with autonomy in running the company. That is a smart decision, as White has built not only the UFC but the MMA industry in North America. Emanuel couldn’t pay anyone to do this job better than Dana.
It can be safely assumed that the company has doubled in value since being sold for $4 billion. That is a gold mark for Dana White, who has continued to grow the value of the UFC even though he sold it in 2016. It is an even better look on Ari, who is profiting massively of the stellar work that White does in running the UFC.